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ADDRESS, 

Before the Teacher's Institute op Wayne County Oct 1816 

— J ' " ' 

By Lewis H. Clark. y ^O 



Ladies and Gentlemen : The magnitude of the school interests of New W 
York, is not a chimera of the imagination, nor are those words simply a pet 
phrase of educational writers. That magnitude is a genuine reality Vast 
as are the agricultural and commercial interests of the state, the schools rival 
them in extent and importance. Five millions of people occupying so ex- 
tensive a territory, a mingled and varying mass of foreign and native elements 
present a field large enough to tax the resources of the wisest statesmanship' 
ihe best thoughts of the ablest educators may well be given to the cultiva- 
tion of this field and the harmonious administration of its wide and often 
conflicting interests. 

There are in this state a million and a half of children apd youth between 
nve and twenty-one years of age. A new quota of nearly one hundred 
thousand, comes up to the lower limit from infancy each year, and the same 
number passes on beyond the higher limit and beyond the provisions of the 
school law. All of this number must depend upon the common schools for 
very much of the education they are to obtain, and two-thirds of them will 
never enjoy the benefit of any other school. The attention of all who con- 
sider the school system of the state is thus drawn strongly to the common 
schools. Ihese are the only resort for a very large portion of the middle 
and poorer classes of community. Their children must be educated in them 
it educated at all. 

The magnitude of the school interests is further seen in the vast expendi- 
tures required. F 

The cost of sites, buildings and furniture raised by the people for ten 
years is nearly seventeen millions of dollars. There has recently too been 
a rapid increase in the value of such sites and buildings, the total value 
having risen from ten millions in 1865 to twenty-seven millions in 1874 
±ne sum paid for teacher's wages, notwithstanding the pittance for which 
so many of them teach, is nevertheless in the aggregate the immense sum of 
seven and a half miUions, and three millions of this amount are disbursed by 
the Department of Public Instruction. 

The importance of our educational work and particularly of the common 
schools, is still more evident from the fact that alfthe great writers upon 
the social fabric pronounce the intelligence of the people to be the only sure 
basis of permanent civil institutions; the general intelligence of a majority 
of the people not the superior cultivation of a favored class. The ordinary 
education of the many, not the higher education of the few. 

Prussia in the olden times, with her universities training the few to become 
tamous as astronomers, mathematicians and men of science, was easily con- 
quered by the armies of Napoleon who marched victoriously over her soil 
and p anted the French banners upon the palaces of Berlin ; but Prussia of 
tne ater age, with her common schools training the masses and placing a 

e ad e rThintf ln l e r e17 baJ ° Det ' ^T* the tlde ° f P° Wer > moved to ^ 
leadership of the German empire and repaid the old compliment by placing 






V 



the G-erman colors upon the domes of Paris. The spelling book was the 
power behind the needle gun of Sadowa and Sedan. So the safety and 
strength of our own state must be secured by the intelligence of the masses 
of the people. To found colleges and universities is a noble work. The 
names of our Cornells will rival in future honor those of Yale and Williams, 
but the college of the workingman, the university for the children of. toil, 
is the district school house. 

It is not my purpose to discuss at the present time the various parts of 
our educational system, nor to fully meet the question whether we really 
have a system or not. The old order of gradation was the common school, 
the academy, the college. Union graded schools have in later years taken 
their place in the system and later still normal schools have become an im- 
portant feature. 

Teacher's Institutes, too, are among the educational facilities of the present 
time and as such are a part of the general arrangement. These separate 
institutions together with the colleges and universities crowning the whole, 
show still more clearly the greatness of the educational work in this state, as 
well as the serious consideration it deserves at the hands of citizens and 
legislators. 

The magnitude of our school interests is also seen in the number of teachers 
required. In the common schools nearly thirty thousand are employed, 
and when the brief time that so many teach is considered, the number of 
persons who share in these duties, is much greater than that. 

The teachers thus form a large division of the people and mark very 
clearly the extent of the work, attempted, in educating the children of the 
state. The success of the schools must depend very largely upon these 
teachers ; upon the preparation they make and the faithfulness with which 
they discharge their duties. To build good school houses and to supply 
them with all needed furniture is of great importance, and it is only a false 
economy that ever refuses these facilities. Yet these will all fail unless 
good teachers are employed ; earnest, faithful qualified teachers ; teachers 
that regard their work as one requiring serious thought, and their school 
houses as places for genuine intelligent labor ; teachers able to think and 
act for the good of every pupil entrusted to them. 

Such teachers are wanted every where; wanted in the new buildings, and 
wanted in the old. Grood teachers will make poor buildings a success, but 
good buildings can never repay the compliment to poor teachers. These 
general considerations suggest the topic of the evening, viz : 

THE EDUCATION OP TEACHERS. 

1st. In what should they be educated ? I answer, in the studies required 
to be taught in the common schools. These are specified in the Code of 
Public Instruction. Reading, spelling, definition of words, arithmetic, 
geography, grammar, history, civil government, and the use of school appa- 
ratus. To be acquainted with these is the simple duty of every one who 
proposes to teach. To conquer these studies should be a necessary part of 
the preparation for any one ever expecting to apply for a certificate. Can- 
didates for teacher's examinations, should make their plans and their educa- 
tion conform to this list of the code, just as candidates for college, follow 
the studies of the catalogue, prescribed for admission. This requirement of 
the code is reasonable because it is necessary. The necessity is so apparent 
that it needs no more proof than any other self-evident truth. To be seri- 
ously deficient in the studies required to be taught, to only half understand 



what one must explain to others, is an absurdity apparent to all. To be 
qualified too in these branches means something more than an acquaintance 
with the first half of the text books and an indefinite guess at the re- 
mainder. The teacher who begins to be frightened when a class desires to 
penetrate the mysteries of arithmetic beyond per centage and immediately 
turns them back for review ; the teacher who fears to grapple with an En- 
glish sentence that happens to contain a participle or a double relative, 
should expect only the certificate that a non-plussed commissioner is said to 
have written, that the bearer " was qualified in respect to learning, moral 
character und ability to attend any common school in the district." To fill 
the school houses with such teachers, hesitating, embarrassed and uncertain 
before their classes, results in misery to the teacher, failure to the pupils and 
general disorder. There will be little or none of the light and life and en- 
thusiasm that comes from confidence and certainty. 

In a simple, thorough knowledge of the studies to be taught, teachers will 
find the foundation of all success and the secret of hearty, vigorous, interest- 
ing labor. This will give strength for weakness, faith for fear, courage for 
distrust. There are other qualifications, such as aptness to teach, ability to 
explain, a happy faculty of securing attention, and these may be difficult of 
acquirement by any direct process, but I suggest that they will generally 
come without much thought and without much effort to every one who 
makes this thorough preparation in the prescribed studies. Aptness to 
teach and all other qualifications are quite certain to spring up abundantly 
in the pathway of thorough study. Institutes and normal schools organized 
to teach teachers how to teach may afford valuable aid, but they can never 
compensate for the lack of actual preparation in the full list of studies laid 
down in the code and it is evident that teachers can secure the most important 
qualifications, even if prevented from attending these special training schools. 
The teacher who can work every example in arithmetic, and answer all 
reasonable questions through the book, will, usually have the ability to teach 
the subject well, even though, no college or normal professor ever told them 
how. 

This requirement of the code is reasonable too because it is easy to be 
obeyed. It is not a difficult matter, nor a very long process for those who 
wish to teach, to prepare. It may be done largely at the district school near 
every ones' home, free to all. A little energy and ambition will accomplish 
much at home. History and civil government may be entirely secured 
there, though a class drill will prove a valuable help. Besides, Academies 
and union schools are open on easy terms to all, and faithful study is certain 
in its results. It never fails. A term at an academy, passed as a jolly good 
time, may not accomplish the work, but serious, earnest study will. In all 
required studies the way is easy, the opportunities abundant. No teacher 
has any excuse for being seriously deficient in them. Some desirous of 
teaching may not have special brilliancy, may not have grace of expression, 
tact in management or positiveness in command, but with undoubted pre- 
paration in their studies they may expect reasonable success. This is the 
old fashioned road of hard study, and traveling in that path nine-tenths will 
succeed. 

It is high time that public sentiment should sustain commissioners in re- 
fusing certificates to all who do not attain to some fair standing in their 
studies. If by any accident half of the candidates should fail to receive 
certificates, there would doubtless be more earnest faithful study the follow- 
ing year and trustees might be compelled to pay better wages to those who 



did succeed. By making a standard of seventy-five and then granting cer" 
tificates at forty or fifty this evil is indefinitely perpetuated, and if trustees 
hire such teachers because they are plenty and cheap, they must expect 
their schools to be mere gatherings of disorderly Young America and not 
places of education. 

Again, teachers should be educated in school law ^ not necessarily as com- 
pletely as if they were to argue cases before the Department of Public In- 
struction or before the courts, but they should be acquainted with ordinary 
school business. To do this it is only necessary to read carefully the pub- 
lished school code, It is printed in the English language, and there is 
nothing particularly difficult about it There is no reason why teachers 
should not understand the mutual rights, duties and responsibilities of trus- 
tees, teachers and school commissioners, together with the general require- 
ments of law. It ought to be a matter of both pride and duty to understand 
all these things sufficiently to have a clear idea of their own duties. Even 
the register is too often filled out in a blundering, half-way manner The 
affidavit, made at the close of the term, ought t obe a conscientious, truthful 
statement and not a mere form. 

Still further, teachers should be informed in the current f/eneral news of 
the world. To this end they should be readers, interested, thoughtful 
readers; not readers of silly sentimental stories; but readers of history, bio- 
graphy, travels, discoveries and the present movements of the nations of the 
earth, such intelligence as good newspapers furuish. 

Teachers thus educated in the required studies, in school law, and in general 
intelligence will have solid qualifications for their work. They ought then 
to add such special training as will make all these fundamental qualifications 
more effective. 

2dly. I am to speak of the facilities provided by the state to assist 
teachers in their preparation. The right of the state thus to assist them is 
doubtless conceded by all as the right of the state to sustain common schools 
is granted even by those who deny it with reference to higher institutions. 
The power to sustain common schools must include the power to provide 
them with an adequate supply of qualified teachers. 

There are three ways in which the state provides assistance in the educa- 
tion of teachers. Institutes, normal schools, and teachers' classes in acad- 
emies. 

1st. Institutes. These have now been in existence since 1858. Ten 
years earlier than thta a few volunteer Institutes without the aid of the state 
were held with excellent success under the old system of County Superin 
tendents, a period of great prosperity for the common schools. The later 
Institutes, now a prominent part of our school system, are established by the 
state and their expenses made a charge upon the school funds. What these 
Institutes ought not to be is very clear. 

They ought not to be mere coaching Institutions where candidates, deficient 
in their studies, can brush up a little, please the commissioners by their 
attendance, and their flattering resolutions and somehow or other secure 
certificates of qualification. They ought not to be mere hospitals where the 
wounded, halting and disabled teachers of the previous year can secure hasty 
treatment instead of taking a longer and more thorough course at an acad- 
emy. They ought not to be an interference with the pursuit of fixed courses 
of study in the academies and union schools. They ought not to be ex- 
pensive and burdensome to the teachers, many of whom are receiving small 
and insufficient wages. They ought not to be places of embarrassment and 



torture to which teachers are forced by their own fears or by the pressure 
of school officers. 

It is perhaps more difficult to state fully the affirmative side of this subject 
but it may be safely remarked, that — 

Institutes should be so interesting and profitable that all teachers desirous 
of improvement will gladly attend them, called there by the interest of the 
occasion and not by the fear that they may be refused certificates. 

Institutes ought to be held at such times that they will not take large 
numbers of students from the classes of the academies and union schools at 
the very middle of the school term. To be absent one or two weeks from 
classes in which they are daily reciting is a serious loss not only to themselves 
but to the remaining pupils. It lessens very much the advantage a student 
may derive from his term's work. If the Institutes must continue to do this, 
they ought to afford exceedingly valuable instruction to compensate for the 
loss. 

Institutes should be reduced to some fitting place in the educational work 
of the state, made to be a part of the system, and not something outside of it 
To do this will perhaps require a systematic adjustment of terms and vaca- 
tions for all the schools of the state. This may be a work of some magnitude, 
but it is certainly within the rightful power of the state to exercise this 
reasonable control over all the schools aided by its bounty. There is nothing 
impossible about this. With three terms in a year, and three vacations made 
uniform > Institutes can be so arranged as not to interfere with any school or 
any class and both teachers and pupils in all the schools be free to attend 
them. The internal management of Institutes is not within the scope of 
this discussion. Teachers giving up considerable time and being at con- 
siderable expense to attend them have a right to expect prompt and positive 
work from the morning of the first day, to the evening of the last. It is a 
matter of some doubt whether commissioners had better take a part of the 
time for examinations. If they do, a simple expedient will relieve themselves 
of some trouble and embarrassment. 

By deciding before hand upon the standard to which all must attain who 
receive certificates and then handing all the papers, bearing numbers and 
no names, to a publicly appointed committee for examination, they would 
secure an impartial decision, and the papers preserved would be a sufficient 
reply to all who complained of their failure. By this or some other process 
the schools should be protected from licensed ignorance, and the community 
will be more likely to sustain a commissioner in a thorough weeding out 
process, if he openly announces the standard and the committee, than they 
will if they know nothing about his method of arriving at a decision. 

The second form of state aid to teachers is through the normal schools. 
For thirty years or more one has been sustained at Albany, and recently 
others have been established at Fredonia, Geneseo, Brockport, Buffalo, Cort- 
land, Oswego and Potsdam. The sites and buildings, have cost $739,000. 
Furniture $39,000. Libraries $57,000. These normal schools are sup- 
ported absolutely by general taxation to the amount of nearly $200,000 a 
year. This has caused much discussion, but the opposition has ceased and 
the necessary amount is now voted by each legislature without hesitation. 
The normal schools are a large addition to the educational forces of the state, 
and are destined to a career of great usefulness. During the year 1873, 
they had in their normal departments 2,671 pupils, costing the state nearly 
$100 each, including the annual appropriations for repairs of buildings, 
library, apparatus and furniture. This is a liberal policy on the part of the 



6 

state, and should in a few years cause a decided gain in the number of 
thoroughly qualified teachers. 

The tuition is free, text books are free, and mileage is allowed, thus relieving 
pupils from several items of expense. Yet the price of board is always the 
great item of cost, in going away from home to attend school, and this, with 
other necessary expenses, amounts to such a sum per year, that very many 
families desiring, their children to teach, cannot send them to the normal 
schools for training. It is a fact obvious to all that the wealthy classes do 
not educate their children for teachers. Teachers are to come from the 
middle classes and from those of smaller means, even the poor. Nine-tenths 
of these cannot attend the normal schools. Out of 30,000 teachers and 
30,000 more expecting to take their places in a short time, only a few, will 
or can attend the normal sehools. The course of instruction in the Normal 
schools is made uniform through them all, and terms and vacations are also 
made simultaneous, thus affording an excellent example of what might be 
attempted for all the schools aided by the state. Their course of instruc- 
tion if taken in full, secures a good education, besides the special training as 
teachers. 

This affords an excellent opportunity to those living in the localities where 
they are situated as well as to all who have the time and means to attend 
them. The normal schools are undoubtedly to do a great work hereafter in 
educating teachers. 

The discussions over their establishment ended, thoroughly equipped for 
their work, sustained by taxation and not by a varying and uncertain tuition 
list, accepted even by those originally opposed to them, upheld by the strong 
arms of the state, the people may reasonably expect results of great value 
from them. 

The 3d form of state aid to teachers' is through Teachers classes in Acad- 
emies. This instrumentality was the earliest of all, and these classes have 
for a long series of years rendered valuable assistance in this work. Acad- 
emies originally formed the sole intermediate link between the district 
school and the college. The district schools prepared pupils to enter the 
academies, and the academies, trained them for admission to college. In 
return the colleges educated teachers for the academies and the academies 
for the district schools. 

This is very largely true yet and must continue so. Union graded schools 
have taken the place of many academies but they have academic depart- 
ments and are practically academies still. The general conditions have not 
changed. The reciprocal relations among the three exist as in olden times. 
Teachers' institutes and normal schools may seem to make some chauge, 
but it is only in appearance The former are too brief and temporary, for 
very thorough work, and the latter are too distant from the great body of 
teachers and too expensive for their pecuniary ability. Besides the number 
of teachers required is too large to be filled for a long time by even eight 
fully equipped normal schools and working up to the full capacity of their 
buildings. 

The Albany Normal School, valuable as its training has been, has only 
graduated about 2000 teachers in thirty-two years, two-thirds of them ladies ; 
and it is not probable that more than a third of the whole number are now 
teaching in this state. All the normal schools together are not graduating 
more than two hundred and fifty or three hundred a year and nearly the 
same proportion of ladies, two-thirds. This number is steadily reduced by 
death, marriage, removals, and change of employment, so that it is not prob- 



able that the eight normal schools will yearly supply more than one hundred 
permanent teachers a year to the schools of the state. 

The normal schools may unquestionably do much to elevate the standard 
of preparation, much to stimulate other schools to educate teachers, better 
than ever before. The normal schools may lead in the grand " onward and 
upward movement," but it is simply a physical impossibility, for them to 
supply the district schools with their own graduates. The Oswego Normal 
School, for various reasons, has a wide spread celebrity and its teachers have 
been eagerly sought for not only in this but in other states, and yet only 
half of its graduates are teaching, and not half in this state. At every step 
we are brought back to the old basis. The academies must educate the 
teachers. The normal schools can give tone and direction to the general 
work, can be a powerful element for good, in leading educators to high and 
still higher ground, but the district schools cannot wait three hundred years 
for normal graduates. They are compelled to look to the academies for 
the teachers they need. 

Now if these statements and figures are even approximately correct, the 
importance of the academies to the general educational work of the state is 
as vital as ever. Their value is not in the least diminished. They still 
occupy the old immediate place in the system, between the college and the 
common school, furnishing students to the one and teachers to the other. 
Any policy which weakens the academies weakens the whole ; any legislation 
against the academies or which ignores them, dangerously affects all the school 
interests of the state. If the common schools need a liberal policy, so do the 
academies. If the colleges need generous treatment, so do the academies. If 
any part of the system will return valuable results in proportion to expendi- 
tures, the academies will. 

These principles were fully recognized by the friends of education and by 
the legislature of the state many years since, And provision was made for 
teachers' classes one term in the year in about ninety academies, thus se- 
curing free tuition for nearly 1800 teachers. The effect of this was to aid 
both the teachers and the academies. It aided large numbers of teachers 
because it enabled them to enter these classes at no great distance from 
their own homes, free of expense and secure valuable training for their work. 
It aided the academies because it secured them some students they would 
not otherwise have had and the tuition paid by the state was a little higher 
than the average of their usual rates. The influence too benefited far more 
than just those who secured the free tuition. It made the subject of educat- 
ing teachers prominent in each of those academies. It drew the attention of 
trustees and others to the subject and exerted a beneficial influence upon 
the whole school where the class was taught. 

These classes are still continued, but they seem to be regarded by many 
educational men, and by the school authorities, as of less importance than 
formerly. This arises perhaps from a dependence upon the normal schools 
since they have been increased to eight, or perhaps from an impression that 
the academies are unfaithful to their trust, that the usefulness of these 
classes has passed away, and that they are not worth the attention and sup- 
port they once received. The facts already given show how fallacious is this 
reasoning and how certain it is that the academies must still educate the 
great majority of the teachers. There are annually in the academies nearly 
30,000 pupils above the age of twelve years. Of course these will not all 
teach, but large numbers of them will. Statistics show that thirty-three 
per cent of the teachers have only the training afforded by the district 



8 

schools, and sixty per cent have academic training leaving seven per cent 
from normal, collegiate and miscellaneous sources. Teachers' classes in 
academies, either directly or indirectly, are benefiting largely the sixty per 
cent. If the authorities of the state are to consider the '' greatest good to 
the greatest number " the sixty per cent are certainly entitled to at least 
equal consideration with the seven per cent. 

If the academies are not doing their assigned work well, then place them 
under such supervision, aud subject them to such frequent visitation that 
they will be compelled to do it faithfully or lose the appropriation. If it is 
shown that the academies are " let " to principals and " run " as private 
schools, and that this is bad policy then terminate it at once : forbid the 
" letting " and compel the trustees of each academy to govern it in fact 
as well as in name. If it is suspected that the academies are evading their 
duty, that their reports of teachers' classes are vague, fictitious and unsatis- 
factory then " investigate " them and do it thoroughly. 

As long as the state holds the award of the offered appropriation, it is in 
a position to command obedieuce, and active supervision will secure it. Prove 
a false report once, refuse the pay, and it will work a speedy reform, if 
reform is needed, not only in that institution but in all others hearing of the 
fact. 

These objections, and suspicions have little or no foundation. It is very 
likely that here and there an academy may have brought discredit upon 
teachers' classes, may have had a class in uame but not in fact. Sham may 
sometimes have characterized the proceedings of a priucipal or a board of 
trustees. Evasion and falsehood may have found a place here and there in 
a single report, but if so, they are exceptions of rare occurrence. The great 
majority of academies are doing their work well, doing it as thoroughly and 
as conscientiously as any other schools in this or any other state. Suggestions 
of inefficiency may require attention and demand a reform, but not the de- 
struction of the academies. The true friends of the academies welcome 
the severest inspection, and the most searching visitation ; they will be glad 
to have a Regent of the University " go through " them twice a year or 
oftener. Insist upon whatever change or reform may be deemed necessary 
either in the organization or the management of academies, but do not 
weaken or destroy those noble intermediate institutions, which have been 
the glory of our school system in the past, which have educated the great 
body of our public men, and to which we must look in the future, for a 
supply of qualified teachers, and for the education of a majority of the active 
business men of community. 

If unfaithful work was to result in a forfeiture of public money, how 
many districts and district schools could stand the test. It is not too severe 
to say that a large amount of money is absolutely wasted upon districts all 
over the state ; districts that have rickety old buildings, which lack furni- 
ture, lack conveniences, lack every thing necessary to a good school. Yet 
the state pays over the appropriation, on a report that some kind of a school 
has been kept some how or other, in something called a school house, for 
twenty-eight weeks. For one forfeiture by an academy on account of un- 
faithful work twenty district failures may easily be found. 

Except the special appropriation of 1872 and 1873, there has been no 
increase in the aid extended to academies for many years. The same sum, 
$40,000, has been divided year by year. Appropriations for common schools 
have been increased, the fostering hand of the state has been extended to 
graded union schools, enabling them to take possession of vested academic 



9 

property, on the vote of a mere majority of a quorum of trustees, four 
only. Normal schools have heen established, and are supported by absolute 
taxation of the whole property of the state, $200,000 a year, but the state 
aid to academies remains the same. The lapse of years, the increasing popu- 
lation of this state, the additional demands of education in these modern 
times have not secured any increased aid. While the state is thus assisting 
every other form of pnblic education, while it is steadily increasing its assis- 
tance year by year, is there any reason why those old faithful public ser- 
vants, the academies, shall not also be remembered when the great appropria- 
tion bills of the state, are being considered by the legislature. 

But teachers' classes in academies, rather than the academies themselves 
are the subject of this discussion. Assuming that it has been shown that 
they are still the best instrumentality to reach the great majority of teachers, 
the best form for securing the aid of the state to the many ; I add the sug- 
gestion that teachers joining these classes, should know their rights and 
demand them. It is generally in their power to prevent any evasion or 
neglect, if any such thing is attempted. The state pays for certain privi- 
leges in their behalf and they are themselves to blame if they do not insist 
upon them. They have a right to special instruction one hour a day sepa- 
rate from all other pupils, they have a right to instruction in the use of 
globes, charts and school apparatus, in the provisions of the school law appli- 
cable to their duties, in the forms of the register, in the best methods of 
teaching! Intelligent, active students, demanding and receiving the care 
provided by the state, and adding their own thorough study, will secure 
great improvement in a single term. In the light of these facts, the pro- 
priety of increasing these academic opportunities is clearly seen. To sustain 
one elass for a single term, a year, in about ninety academies is the limit 
of the present appropriations. May this not be extended, with propriety to 
two or three classes a year, and to a greater numbers of academies ? A few 
figures upon this point will be appropriate. 

1st. It should be remembered that not a dollar of money raised by taxa- 
tion is now given to the academies. Their sites, buildings and furniture 
are entirely paid for, without expense to the state. With reference to the 
older academies their establishment has been secured by an absolute dona- 
tion of funds by benevolent individuals, giving to the state in that sense, 
rather than taking from it; and the union schools with academic depart- 
ments are paid for by the localities where they are situated. The income of 
the Literature Fund, rendered inviolate by the Constitution, sustains the 
annual distribution of $40,000, and that, together with the income of the 
United States Deposit Fund, provides for the small sums given for library and 
apparatus and also sustains the present teachers' classes. 

2d. The Albany Normal School was formerly supported by an annual 
appropriation of $18,000 from the income of the United States Deposit 
Fund, but upon the establishment of the other normal schools, that 
was placed upon the same basis with them, and all are supported from the 
Free|School Fund raised by taxation. The $18,000, originally devoted to 
educating teachers in the Albany Normal School is now yearly saved to the 
Deposit Fund. If this was placed at the disposal of the Regents for the 
support of teachers' classes, two each year instead of one could be provided 
for. But the reports of the comptroller for two or three years past show 
that the revenue of the Deposit Fund applicable to the purposes of education 
will justify a still further appropriation. This in connection with the fact 
that something less than $18,000 is now expended in sustaining one class, 



10 

leads to the conclusion that it would be entirely safe to authorize the Regents 
to continue these classes three terms or through the year in ninety aca- 
demies, and draw the entire amount needed for their support from the 
Revenue of the United States Deposit Fund. If a small sum should be 
required from the Free School Fund, to complete the work, no injustice 
would be done to any other educational interest. 

To continue a teachers' class through the year would be a grand advance 
step. Teachers prevented from attending one term could have the oppor- 
tunity at another and it would give free tuition to nearly five thousand in 
the state. The views thus far expressed can scarcely be objected to unless 
it can be shown that some other educational work is more worthy to receive 
the benefit of the Deposit Fund. But in closing I desire to submit a pro- 
position that may very well be considered radical. 

Why shall not the friends of the academies extend their views to the full 
limit, of providing teachers' classes of twenty pupils each through the year, 
in all the academies and union schools under the charge of the regents of 
the university. There are two hundred and thirty-four such institutions 
and suppose the classes through the year to consist of different individuals 
(which might properly be required) then fourteen thousand teachers each 
year would be reached and secured free tuition. This would approximate 
to the necessities of the times, this would meet that steady demand contin- 
ually coming up from the districts for better qualified teachers. With these 
classes so easy of access, so universally open all over the state, but two or 
three years would elapse before every candidate for a school would be re- 
quired by trustees to have taken this preliminary drill. 

Is it objected that the work will not be faithfully done ; I reply that 
efficient supervision and frequent visitation can secure it as certainly as they 
can secure any other definite results, through any other department of our 
school system. The board of regents, twenty-two in number, are unquestion- 
ably competent for this work, not only in the highest scientific and literary 
attainments but in executive skill and numerical force. 

Besides the school commissioners in each assembly district could be 
specially charged with this work. The regents, aided by their secretaries, 
might perhaps visit the academies once a year and the school commissioners 
have ample time to see them three times or oftener. This with strict veri- 
fied reports and written examinations of the classes would accomplish the 
desired result. The institutions would be compelled to earn the money 
paid them by the state as justly as the normal or the district schools do. 

But the financial question must be met; this extension of teachers' classes 
from ninety schools to two hundred and thirty-four, cannot be provided for 
except by the Free School Fund as the normal schools are supported. Is 
it not reasonable that this should be done ? Is it not just? It is appro- 
priating money for the same purpose. To pay for the education of teachers 
through the normal schools requires taxation. To pay for the education of 
teachers through the academy is precisely similar work. Why shall it not 
be paid for in a similar manner ? 

Finally, how much money would be required to sustain this enlarged 
plan ? It is a simple matter of calculation. Estimating at the rate of tuition 
now authorized by law, and taking it for granted that the revenue of the 
Deposit Fund will nearly or quite provide for ninety academies, it will be 
seen that only ninety thousand dollars from the Free School Fund would be 
needed to secure this advantage to fourteen thousand teachers. Does any one 
say that ninety thousand dollars is a large sum ? / reply that it is not, when 



11 

compared with other school expenditures ; that it is not large, when we con- 
sider the extent and the population of this state and the immense number 
of teachers required. On the other hand it is safe to assert that no other 
educational work of equal magnitude is sustained as economically as this 
would be. 

Why shall the legislature hesitate at $90,000 for the aid of 14,000 
teachers, in the academfes while they vote without a question $200,000 for 
3,000 in the normal schools. 






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